Halfway Road red-light runners in city's crosshairs

MARION -- Three candidates for mayor of Marion put their heads together on Monday night to deal with the chronic problem of semi trucks running the red light on their left turn to the Pilot Truck Stop off westbound Illinois 13.

Commissioner Angelo Hightower brought up the red-light running big rigs during his time for remarks at the end of the regular city council meeting, and said it is a dangerous situation.

"It's just blatant disregard for the law," Hightower said. "Somebody is going to get hurt if we don't do something."

Due to the short timing of the left-turn signal at Illinois 13 west and Halfway Road, eighteen-wheelers can only make it through the light one at a time.

Mayor Anthony Rinella said the trucks often stack up in the turn lane three or four deep. "And when one starts, they are all coming through."

With Route 13 being a state highway, the Illinois Department of Transportation controls the signal's timing, and IDOT has been reluctant to change the lights in favor of keeping eastbound traffic moving, Rinella said.

"IDOT is aware of the problem," Rinella said.

Marion police, have on occasion followed red-light violators into Pilot Truck Stop, Rinella said, and that led to complaints by the Pilot Truck Stop management.

Rinella said that when The Hill Avenue overpass opened over Interstate 57, plans were to have the trucks take that exit and come up Halfway Road from the south.

"I don't know how we educate people to use that exit," Rinella said.

Hightower and Rinella are both running for mayor in next year's election, though they were not explicitly campaigning. Their remarks were part of the normal business of a council meeting.

Michael Absher, a candidate for mayor who started attending city council meetings as an observer last week, chimed in to say his Watermark Auto Group office, perched at the intersection of The Hill Avenue and Halfway Road, gives him the perfect vantage point.

"I was literally having this conversation at the window, saying, 'this is what happens.' As we spoke, it happened. And a wreck was there," Absher said.

Citing the problem as a life and safety issue, Absher offered to let the city mount a camera to his building to record the intersection, and get the hard data that might convince IDOT to lengthen the turn signal.

More brainstorming took place to get the truckers to use The Hill Avenue exit, with Absher suggesting the city write letters to the manufacturers of the mapping software used by truckers, and get the routes changed.